Quotes of the day

posted at 10:38 pm on May 21, 2012 by Allahpundit

In Washington, there’s an old cliche: A gaffe is when a politician is accidentally honest.

That’s what happened to Newark (N.J.) Mayor Cory Booker during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Booker, who is widely regarded as a fast riser in Democratic politics, veered badly off message when he defended Bain Capital — the longtime employer of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — and described the negative tone of the campaign as “nauseating”…

Watch Booker’s video; it’s obvious he doesn’t like the negativity of the campaign — on both sides — and despite what we can only assume was heavy pressure by the Obama team to fix the glitch, he isn’t willing to entirely walk back his comments.

***

Gingrich said Booker “described what I think is a big reality for him as the mayor of Newark, that that free enterprise system has been creating jobs, paying taxes, improving his city.”

Romney’s work at Bain is open for inspection as part of his record, Gingrich said, but Democrats would be wise to stay away from it, lest they be seen as critical of the free market…

“One thing we discovered we could never make clear an attack on a particular case, and Romney’s ability to say no this is about free enterprise” he said. “And the average American looked up and said, ‘it’s about free enterprise.’ And it turned out that particular argument simply doesn’t work.”

“You know, they’re known as a very good company,” one Democratic operative said of Bain. “[They] help a lot of businesses around the country. Smart Dems don’t want to be anti-business.”…

The Obama campaign, meanwhile, continued dominating the latest in its string of mini-news cycles with the comments from Booker and then his YouTube walk back of his indictment of the Bain critiques on “Meet the Press.”

One Democratic operative wondered aloud whether “he was sending signals using finger-taps or blinks” as Booker delivered a message he appeared to have been pressured into. Obama insiders denied pushing Booker to apologize.

***

“See it’s not a surprise to me because, if people don’t understand it now by paying attention to Cory traveling throughout the country, the people he meets with, people he supports and all the stuff happening in Newark with hedge funds and investors, if they don’t understand he’s completely beholden to them, there’s something wrong with them,” Rice said today. “It should not come as a shock to Obama, who understands [Booker] has these relationships and is going to play both ends to the middle as he always does.”

Referring to the video statement Booker posted for his “social media followers” after the “Meet the Press” appearance in which he reiterated his support for Obama, Rice said, “You can’t have it both ways. You can’t clean up something you truly believe in.”

Contributions to his 2002 campaign from venture capitalists, investors, and big Wall Street bankers brought him more than $115,000 for his 2002 campaign. Among those contributing to his campaign were John Connaughton ($2,000), Steve Pagliuca ($2,200), Jonathan Lavine ($1,000) — all of Bain Capital. While the forms are not totally clear, it appears the campaign raised less than $800,000 total, making this a significant percentage.

***

Baldwin pressed LaBolt. “Hang on, I know Cory Booker is a rising star, he’s a superstar on Twitter. You’re telling me no one within the Obama 2012 campaign in any way reached out to Cory Booker to fix this?”

The president, speaking to reporters in Chicago at the conclusion of a NATO summit there, said that it’s perfectly fair to pore through Romney’s record at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he had cofounded, since the former Massachusetts governor had made his private sector experience a cornerstone of his campaign.

I don’t know if you noticed this yet on the iPad thingy. You can move between app, i.e. youtube/safari by using all four fingers together or the palm of your hand to swipe side to side. The apps that are open will slide back and forth that way.

Bmore on May 22, 2012 at 2:24 AM

Wait…what? Is that when you are on the screen with all the apps on it?
Do you know how to save power? Double click your home button. The screen will “lift” and all your open apps will appear below. Touch one hard, so it “bounces”, an X will appear on all open apps. Close them, they chew through your battery life.

Too bad Dragon’s splash down is several hundred miles off the SoCal coast. But looks like the recovery barge will bring it home through the Port of Los Angeles. They should give it a parade up the 110/405 to Hawthorne.

Was it just the position of the space station relative to the launch site?

Exactly. They had to launch at a precise moment to intercept the ISS, and since the orbit of the ISS was over the Cape at night during this period, they had to launch at night.

By the way, I suggest you go to heavens-above.com and check out whether there are visible passes of the ISS over your location in the next few days. As the Dragon approaches the ISS, it may be visible as a dim “star” near the very bright ISS, especially if you use binoculars, but it might be a longshot.

One Democratic operative wondered aloud whether “he was sending signals using finger-taps or blinks” as Booker delivered a message

Yes, like a POW or hostage. Democratic operative showing a bit of guilty conscience when one of their more “unmanageable” plantation hands is brought to heel. Any big city mayor with an iota of common sense will look at Detroit and say, unh uh. Some of them know what the private sector does for a locality. Some of them also know what their national party has become.

While I like the idea of the capitalist market being involved in space flight, I think what Odumbo’s done to NASA is ridiculous.

RedCrow on May 22, 2012 at 3:17 AM

Friend of mine was just out here at JPL in Pasadena. He’s a NASA engineer, and they’re testing all the private enterprise engines at the NASA facility (Stennis Space Center) in Mississippi. He had nothing kind to say about Obama and NASA’s Muslim Self-Esteem Mission.

Booker’s equivalization of Obama’s Bain ads to attacks on Rev. Wright comes at a difficult time for the president’s campaign. Obama needs to get Romney on the defensive on the economy and is spending big bucks to turn him into Gordon Gecko.

The president is certainly helped the more the discussion stays on Romney’s record. The Republican is mounting a spirited defense, but that’s still better for Obama than Romney staying on offense. Even so, Obama doesn’t want to be identified with the kind of heavy-handed attacks that even his supporters say are unfair.

The question is whether the damage he’s doing to Romney is worth the damage Obama is doing to his donor base and his brand. Source

Nice to see the media falling over themselves to spin Booker’s words. Fittingly, an anniversary of one of the MSM’s darkest hours comes up next month – though something tells me we won’t be hearing much about it … http://bit.ly/qVdDUt

Too bad Dragon’s splash down is several hundred miles off the SoCal coast. But looks like the recovery barge will bring it home through the Port of Los Angeles. They should give it a parade up the 110/405 to Hawthorne.

de rigueur on May 22, 2012 at 4:16 AM

Given the speed traffic moves on the 405, how would anyone know the difference?

One Democratic operative wondered aloud whether “he was sending signals using finger-taps or blinks” as Booker delivered a message he appeared to have been pressured into. Obama insiders denied pushing Booker to apologize.

Breitbart.com is referring to this as “The Hostage Video.”

Yet another attack completely blowing up in the Emperor Zero’s face.

Absolutely nothing goes right for Zero’s campaign. No wonder Mathews is so upset.